These speakers provide fresh perspectives, encouraging teams to embrace cultural understanding and inclusivity, which boosts employee morale, productivity, and overall workplace harmony.
At Great Business Speakers, we specialise in finding the ideal EDI speaker for your event— whether virtual or in-person. Our curated roster of diverse talents includes professionals who address timely and impactful topics like systemic bias, allyship, and the importance of celebrating diversity in the workplace.
For notable occasions such as Black History Month, an EDI speaker can emphasise the significance of African American contributions, discuss historical and ongoing challenges, and inspire ongoing efforts toward equity and inclusion. With our support, your event can create a lasting impact by educating and empowering your audience to build a more inclusive future.
Discover our EDI Speakers below, or contact the team at Great Business Speakers to enquire or book. +44 1753 439 289
Angeline Francis Khoo is the founder and chief executive of Rosie On Fire, a luxury kimono brand that blends high-end fashion with social impact.
Rosie On Fire is a purpose-driven fashion company that puts into practice Angeline’s combined passion for business, social impact and fashion retail.
Inspired by the challenges faced by her autistic siblings in finding work, Angeline founded Rosie On Fire in 2013 to both fill a gap in the market in creating easy, glamorous pieces for women, and stable, meaningful job opportunities for marginalised people often excluded from the workforce.
David McQueen is an international speaker, executive coach and facilitator, working with clients around the globe and sharing his insights on effective leadership and communication in the workplace.
He started his career as an accountant, then went to IT working in systems support and then as a project manager.
In his career, he found that he spent as much time advising colleagues on career development and presentation skills as he did the technical part of work and decided that he would leave the corporate world to set up his own communications company, Narratively Ltd.
Since then David McQueen has spoken at conferences, in-house meetings, away days and executive retreats in Europe, Canada, USA, The Middle East, Thailand, South Africa, Australia and Tanzania to name but a few.
Jodie Armore-White is a bilingual English/Japanese speaker and presenter who was born in Australia, had a global upbringing and now lives in the UK.
Jodie prides herself on being a ‘realist’ and offers an insight into the role that psychology and experience play in personal, professional and business behaviour and performance. Her style is refreshing, factual and importantly, humorous.
Regardless of the subject matter, she’s conscious that her keynote is strategically well balanced verbally and visually to ensure maximum delegate engagement, benefit and entertainment.
Jo Malone has been described as an “English scent maverick” and the woman responsible for creating some of the world’s most-loved fragrances.
Originally a facial therapist, Jo fell in love with fragrance whilst working from her discreet skin care clinic which she set up from her London home. Discovering an instinctual talent for creating scented products by hand in her kitchen, word of her exceptional potions quickly spread and soon Jo was unable to keep up with demand.
From these artisan beginnings, Jo launched her first brand, Jo Malone London which gained cult status around the world.
In 1999, Jo sold the business to Estée Lauder Companies and remained Creative Director until she left in 2006.
David Constantine MBE is a pioneering expert in disability design, charity founder, and independent consultant.
Initially interested in pursuing a career in agriculture, a diving accident at 21 stopped him in his tracks, and he was forced to look down a new path.
Over his 30+ year career, David has built a worldwide reputation in the disability sector and was named an MBE in 2010 for services to disability. He also won the RSA Student Design Awards and the RSA Bicentenary Medal for his contribution to design advancement in industry and society.
David is now one of the most sought-after disability speakers on the circuit, speaking at expos, summits, and to individual business owners and companies.
Darren Edwards is a record-breaking Disabled Adventurer, a leading authority on adaptability, resilience and teamwork, as well as an inspirational speaker and best-selling author.
At 26 years old, Darren experienced a devastating and life-changing climbing accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. What could have been the darkest time of his life was turned into a catalyst for personal growth and development.
His story is a living example of the limitless capabilities of the human spirit to overcome adversity. Since his accident, Darren has become a record-breaking Disabled Adventurer with a list of remarkable achievements. His inspiration is boundless, having redefined what is possible for a person with a spinal cord injury. Darren has shown what is possible with the right mindset and the ability to adapt to change.
He has understandably become a highly sought-after speaker to big global companies including British Airways, PepsiCo, Procter and Gamble and Google to name a few.
Jermaine Beckford is a former footballer who played for Bolton, Everton, Leicester City, and Preston, as well as for Jamaica on an international level.
Since retiring from playing, Jermaine has become a regular media analyst and pundit, appearing on Sky Sports, Sky Sports News, and the Premier League channel.
More recently Jermaine and his wife Laura founded Supernova Living, a plant-based health business.
Amelia Kallman is a highly regarded futurist, speaker and author who has been named one of the ‘Top 25 Women in the Metaverse’ and ‘Top 20 World-Leading Futurist Speakers 2024’.
Specialising in technology, innovation, and the emerging opportunities and risks associated with AI, XR, the metaverse, and Web 3.0, Amelia empowers organisations to navigate innovation, build strategies and make informed decisions about the future.
She regularly consults for a number of Fortune 500 companies, with clients including Unilever, Puma, Avixa, PWC, Allianz, Lloyd’s, Red Bull, TD Synnex, and the UK Parliament.
Amelia makes the complex accessible, empowering her audiences with the foundational knowledge, context, and language they need. She leaves her audiences feeling inspired, with actionable insights they can apply immediately.
“Alison delivers clear business impact, with a human touch and personable approach.”
Dr Alison Edgar MBE, is an expert in improving performance inside organisations. Throughout Alison’s years advising entrepreneurial businesses, she has analysed the important factors that make them successful. Alison takes these lessons and applies them to big companies, enhancing motivation, communication, and agility. She is known both for her practical tools that teams can implement immediately and for the ground-breaking and lasting impact she has on audiences.
Alison Edgar was one of the few women to be awarded an MBE on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2020 for her services to entrepreneurship and business. After gaining her knowledge and experience in the corporate arena for over 25 years, Alison has mentored some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, from start-ups to multi-million-pound turnovers.
A dyslexic author of two international best-selling books, Alison Edgar has mastered the balance of how to enhance readers’ personal and professional development. Her debut book was not only a WHSmith Top Ten Business Book but named one of the top business books written by a woman in 2019 by The Independent newspaper.
After studying for her master’s degree at the University of Chicago and working on a political campaign there, Alex Depledge returned to the UK to work as a consultant at Accenture. She specialised in customer and channel execution. In 2012, Alex teamed up with her friend and fellow Great Business Speakers Jules Coleman to start the online business Hassle.com, now known as ‘Helping’. Impressively, Alex raised the largest VC capital funding ever for a solely female owned business at the time.
What started life as a rather modest booking page allowing users to book all manner of services, became a well-known brand. The duo would go on to sell the company in 2015 for an impressive £24 million.
The following year, the duo set up Resi.co.uk – with Alex as CEO and Jules as CTO – an online architectural platform helping UK homeowners renovate and extend their homes.
Alex is now a popular entrepreneurial speaker, looking at start-up mentality, branding, scaling up a business, overcoming obstacles, the importance of duty of care, diversification, and how to respond to customer needs.
Alex Atherton is a Leadership Coach and expert on Generation Z who works with senior leaders to help improve recruitment, retention and engagement of this generation of young people in the workplace.
Drawing on his long career as a headteacher, he also supports organisations in thinking differently about Generation Z and managing their development as multi-generational institutions.
By 2025, Gen Z will make up 25% of the workforce, yet many older people in leadership positions do not understand this generation. Alex presents the challenges for leaders and organisations but also the actions needed to not only overcome these challenges but ensure future prosperity.
Alex’s down-to-earth talks make his audiences laugh and wince yet feel empowered with the practical actions they take away to implement.
Diversity speaker, Adah Parris is an award-winning polymath and enthusiastic curator of people, patterns and stories, anti-disciplinary artist, tech futurist, activist, and keynote speaker.
An expert in fields including systems design, digital and ecological technology, and living systems, she has an unique perspective on innovation, technology, and transformation. She is both empathetic and subversive, challenges the status quo, and helps people to recognise and bridge the gap between their external stories and internal behaviours.
Since 2020, Adah Parris has been chair of Mental Health First Aid England, a social enterprise that offers expert guidance and training to support mental health in the workplace. She is also Chair for The Centre for Cultural Values Advisory Group.
Adah Parris is co-founder of Ism.Earth and Artist in Residence at the Santa Barbara Centre for Art Science and Technology. She was an Artist in Residence at the Design Science Studio and the Living Collaboratory – a partnership between The Design Science Studio and the Emergent Media Lab at the University of California Irvine.”
